Born and raised in the San Gabriel Valley, Angélica Garcia grew up in El Monte, CA in a home overflowing with musical passion and talent. This included three family members — including her mother — who performed Latin pop and as mariachis. Unsurprisingly, such an environment inevitably exposed her to the musical mosaic inherited through her Mexican-Salvadoran heritage.
Urged throughout her adolescence to try her hand at the arts, she started studying jazz and classical music while attending LACHSA (Los Angeles County High School for the Arts). She then fell into the rabbit hole of indie acts like School of Seven Bells, Bat for Lashes, and The White Stripes, foreshadowing her future genre-busting approach.
After leaving California for Richmond, VA, with her family, she released in 2016 what would become her seminal debut album, Medicine for Birds. A blend of soul-throwing Americana and off-kilter alt-rock in the vein of PJ Harvey, the album is filled with rollicking anthems and intimately sprawling poeticisms that dig into Garcia’s bloodlines.
But it was her 2020 sophomore record, Cha Cha Palace, that truly spoke to a generation. The album entrenched her further into that cultural lineage while highlighting her talents for uncovering and rebirthing its musical traditions. It also served as her first album to feature Spanish lyricism: as on the beat-funk adoration of “Guadalupe” or the uproarious banger “Jícama,” Garcia beating her chest with roots of her Angeleno pride.
With the four-year gap that’s separated previous album drops closing, Garcia has revealed that her third album GEMELO will finally emerge on June 7th via Partisan Records. Fans can catch Garcia on tour this summer in Europe and the U.K. but keep your ear to the ground for the announcement of North American dates in support of the new record!
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Garcia began last year with a collaboration with Sinego and French Braids on “Quema” — the only single that won’t appear on the forthcoming record. She also performed a handful of headlining dates across New York at The Sultan Room and Irving Plaza as well as a slot at Joshua Tree Music Festival in Southern California. To top it all off Garcia joined Soccer Mommy on tour and accompanied legends Blonde Redhead on their U.S. tour.
As the year drew to a close she started to showcase what was to come through a series of rapturous singles and captivating music videos. First came the double-impact of “Y Grito” and “El Que,” a pair of tracks that share an emphatic emotional and sonic ferocity but deliver them in distinctly different ways. Filmed in monochromatic shades by the team at *UNCANNY both songs are completed by their respective videos, which find Garcia using her body and dance to gesticulate the visceral empowerment and violent friction inherent to gender.
She returned with “Juanita,” a cumbia-inspired song that adds her indelible spin to the lovelorn sounds of this tradition, flushing it with heady bass exchanges and simmering electronica. The music video was directed by Sonia Malfa — whom Garcia credits with helping draw her out of the discomfort she feels toward wearing her gender — and toys with personal expression through fashion.
New songs, like the vibrant shapeshifting “Gemini,” and the soaring “Color De Dolor,“ offer a glimpse into GEMELO. The latter was also the first song Garcia wrote for the album and was conceived as a propulsive digestion of pain. Unlike the other offerings shared thus far, the track billows with uplifting weightlessness, her piercing croons saturated by varying hues of anguish, anger, wonder, and, finally, acceptance. Barcelona-born filmmaker Sergi Castellà helmed the creation of the visually breathtaking “Color De Dolor” music video, which was filmed in Simi Valley, CA, amongst its liminal spaces and rolling fields.
“Gemelo means twin. The record focuses on the intersection of spirit and body — how we have ourselves in the flesh navigating life, but we also have an intuitive self guiding us through challenges. Gemelo is a processing of grief. Grief is a painful thing, but its presence also implies the presence of love and growth. Our gemelo helps us alchemize grief into our own liberation.”
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After spending last year touring and heavily teasing the electro-pop experimentation of a new project it looks as if 2024 will be the one to define this next chapter of her life and artistry. When GEMELO finally drops we expect it to rocket Garcia’s rise as an artist of immense musical and cultural significance — let alone becoming what will be one of the best releases of the year.
Words: Steven Ward
GEMELO arrives on June 7th via Partisan Records.
Visit Angélica Garcia on her website and Instagram to stay updated on new releases and tour announcements.
Angélica Garcia Tour
Thursday, May 16 – The Great Escape – Brighton, UK
Saturday, May 18 – London Calling Festival – Amsterdam, NL
May 23 – 26 – Festival Druga Godba – Ljubljana, SI
Monday, May 27 – Primavera Festival – Barcelona, ES
Saturday, June 1 – Maifield Derby – Mannheim, DE
Sunday, June 2 – Immergut Festival – Neustrelitz, DE
Monday, June 3 – Botanique, Witloff Bar – Brussels, BE
Tuesday, June 4 – Aucard De Tours Festival – Tours, FR
Wednesday, June 5 – Le Pop Up – Paris, FR
June 6 – 8 – Northside Festival – Aarhus, DK
Monday, June 10 – The Louisiana – Bristol, UK
Tuesday, June 11 – The Castle Hotel – Manchester, UK
Wednesday, June 12 – The Lower Third – London, UK
Friday, July 26 – Latitude Festival – Suffolk, UK
Angélica Garcia
GEMELO
Partisan Records
June 7, 2024
01 Reflexiones
02 Color De Dolor
03 Juanita
04 Ángel [eterna]
05 Mirame
06 Y Grito
07 El Que
08 Intuición
09 Gemini
10 Paloma
